Gunpowder

The kitchen calls itself a 'peninsular' one, and the menu is a genuine tour of southern India rather than the usual dosa-and-idli shorthand. Vegetable dishes are a strength: thoran (finely chopped vegetables tossed with grated coconut), avial (mixed vegetables in a coconut-and-yoghurt gravy), poriyals and pachadis, all cooked to taste of the ingredient rather than the spice tin. On the non-veg side you get Kerala-style mutton and chicken curries, Malabar prawn curry, and hotter Andhra/Chettinad plates, usually mopped up with appam, rice or Malabar parotta. Portions are home-sized and meant for sharing across a few dishes. It is unpretentious, generous cooking, and the setting — an airy old house with garden seating — is a big part of why regulars keep coming back. Come hungry, order a spread, and don't rush it.

Build a thali-style spread: a couple of appams with a Kerala mutton or chicken curry, the Malabar prawn curry, and at least one vegetable dish (avial or thoran) to balance the heat. Seafood is reliably fresh — prawns and pomfret are safe picks — and the coconut-based gravies are the house signature. Vegetarians are genuinely well looked after here rather than an afterthought. Finish with a filter coffee. It is licensed, so a cold beer with a spicy Andhra plate works nicely. If you're only ordering one thing, make it an appam-and-stew or appam-and-mutton-curry combination — it's the dish people come back for.